Exploring the meaning of care among lived experiences of patients with blindness:an interpretive phenomenological study

Objective:To explore the meaning of care experienced by people with blindness in hospitals.Methods:Interpretive phenomenology along with the 6-step method of van Manen was used to conduct the study.Using purposeful sampling,15 people with legal blindness were interviewed.Thematic analysis was used to isolate the meaning of care.Results:Five themes emerged:(a)nurses in the eyes of patients with blindness;(b)negligence in the caring moments;(c)being cared for in ambiguity;(d)Uncoordinated care;and(e)Psychological discomfor t.These sub-themes were condensed into an overarching theme titled as“marginalized patients inside the stereotypical healthcare system.”Conclusions:Lived experiences of patients with blindness revealed that hospitals provide stereotypic or inappropriate care for this minority group in society.Health professionals par ticularly nurses should be skilled to provide person-centered and coordinated care for patients with blindness.

A phenomenological model for plastic flow behavior of rotating band material with a large temperature range

The plastic flow behavior of the rotating band material is investigated in this paper. The rotating band material is processed from H96 brass alloy, which is hardened to a much higher yield strength compared to the annealed one. The dynamically uniaxial compression behavior of the material is tested using the split Hopkinson pressure bar(SHPB) with temperature and strain rate ranging from 297 to 1073 K and500 to 3000 s^(-1), respectively, and a phenomenological plastic flow stress model is developed to describe the mechanical behavior of the material. The material is found to present noticeable temperature sensitivity and weak strain-rate sensitivity. The construction of the plastic flow stress model has two steps. Firstly, three univariate stress functions, taking plastic strain, plastic strain rate and temperature as independent variable, respectively, are proposed by fixing the other two variables. Then, as the three univariate functions describe the special cases of flow stress behavior under various conditions, the principle of stress compatibility is adopted to obtain the complete flow stress function. The numerical results show that the proposed plastic flow stress model is more suitable for the rotating band material than the existing well-known models.

Differences of Phenomenological Reduction and Fusion of Horizons in Analyzing Literary Works——Analysis of Hawthorne's Young Goodman Brown from the Perspectives of Phenomenological Reduction and Fusion of Horizons

Edmund Husserl's first important move about phenomenology is the"phenomenological reduction"which means that we should reduce the external world to the contents of our consciousness alone. However, Hans-Georg Gadamer holds the opinion that all interpretation of a past work consists in a dialogue between past and present(Eagleton, T. 2009:62). Gadamer's famous theory is fusion of horizons which means that the event of understanding comes about when our own"horizon"of historical meanings and assumptions"fuses"with the"horizon"within which the work itself is placed. The present thesis takes Hawthorne's YoungGoodmanBrown as an example to illustrate different understandings when readers apply the two different theories.

Prediction on hot deformation behavior of spray-formed 7055 aluminum alloy via phenomenological models

Hot compression tests in the temperature range of 340-450 ℃ and strain rate range of 0.001-1 s^-1 of spray-formed 7055 aluminum alloy were carried out to study its hot deformation behavior. Three phenomenological models including Johnson-Cook, modified Fields-Backofen and Arrhenius-type were introduced to predict the flow stresses during the compression process. And then, a comparative predictability of the phenomenological models was estimated in terms of the relative errors, correlation coefficient（R）, and average absolute relative error（AARE）. The results indicate that Johnson-Cook model and modified Fields-Backofen model cannot well predict the hot deformation behavior due to the large deviation in the process of line regression fitting. Arrhenius-type model obtains the best fit through combining the effect of strain rate and temperature.

Phenomenological Anisotropic Study of Surface Finish in Pack Rolling

A phenomenological anisotropic model has been presented for the surface roughness modeling of pack rolling. The model is an assembly of grains in different orientations and sizes. The grain size is assumed to be in log-normal distribution. To model the macro anisotropic mechanical behavior of the grains induced by the slip deformation, the grains are assumed as isolated anisotropic units. The units have different mechanic behavior, and depend on the crystallographic orientations and the external loading as well as the interaction of the adjunctive grains. In the paper, the material properties of the grains are assumed as uniform distributions. The roughness of the contact surfaces depends on the distribution types and the scatters of the distributions. It is found that the initial roughness of the contact surfaces has a little influence on the surface roughness when the rolling deformation is large. The comparison between the phenomenological model and crystallographic model shows that the phenomenological model can also give out a reasonable result, while it only takes much less CPU time. The agreement between the single sheet model and the pack rolling model shows that in a certain degree the pack rolling model can be replaced by the single sheet model to decrease the CPU time.

Differential diagnosis of obsessive-compulsive symptoms from delusions in schizophrenia: A phenomenological approach

Several studies suggest increased prevalence-rates of obsessive-compulsive symptoms(OCS) and even of obsessive-compulsive disorder(OCD) in patients with schizophrenic disorders. Moreover, it has been recently proposed the existence of a distinct diagnostic subgroup of schizo-obsessive disorder. However, the further investigation of the OCS or OCD-schizophrenia diagnostic comorbidity presupposes the accurate clinical differential diagnosis of obsessions and compulsions from delusions and repetitive delusional behaviours, respectively. In turn, this could be facilitated by a careful comparative examination of the phenomenological features of typical obsessions/compulsions and delusions/repetitive delusional behaviours, respectively. Thiswas precisely the primary aim of the present investigation. Our examination included seven features of obsessions/delusions(source of origin and sense of ownership of the thought, conviction, consistency with one's belief-system, awareness of its inaccuracy, awareness of its symptomatic nature, resistance, and emotional impact) and five features of repetitive behaviours(aim of repetitive behaviours, awareness of their inappropriateness, awareness of their symptomatic nature, and their immediate effect on underlying thought, and their emotional impact). Several of these clinical features, if properly and empathically investigated, can help discriminate obsessions and compulsive rituals from delusions and delusional repetitive behaviours, respectively, in patients with schizophrenic disorders. We comment on the results of our examination as well as on those of another recent similar investigation. Moreover, we also address several still controversial issues, such as the nature of insight, the diagnostic status of poor insight in OCD, the conceptualization and differential diagnosis of compulsions from other categories of repetitive behaviours, as well as the diagnostic weight assigned to compulsions in contemporary psychiatric diagnostic systems. We stress the importance of the feature of mental reflexivity for understanding the nature of insight and the ambiguous diagnostic status of poor insight in OCD which may be either a marker of the chronicity of obsessions, or a marker of their delusionality. Furthermore, we criticize two major shortcomings of contemporary psychiatric diagnostic systems(DSM-IV, DSM-V, ICD-10) in their criteria or guidelines for the diagnosis of OCD or OCS: first, the diagnostic parity between obsessions and compulsions and, second, the inadequate conceptualization of compulsions. We argue that these shortcomings might artificially inflate the clinical prevalence of OC symptoms in the course of schizophrenic disorders. Still, contrary to a recent proposal, we do not exclude on purely a priori grounds the possibility of a concurrence of genuine obsessions along with delusions in patients with schizophrenia.

Phenomenological description of semi-soft nematic elastomers

Nematic elastomers are new materials that have many remarkable properties.In this article,we study how nonlinear elasticity of semi-soft nematic elastomers can be described phenomenologically.We start with a theory based on strain tensor only,and then continue to develop a phenomenological description with the liquid crystal order tensor included explicitly.Such a description has the virtue of being able to treat the strain tensor and the liquid crystal order tensor equally and thus making the complicated symmetries of nematic elastomers easier to understand.

Experiences of Staying Healthy in Relationally Demanding Jobs: An Interpretative Phenomenological Study of Work-Engaged Nurses in the Hospital

Background: Based on the experience of hospital nurses, the aim of this study is to explore the phenomenon of how work-engaged nurses stay healthy in relationally demanding jobs involving very sick and/or dying patients. Method: In-depth interviews were conducted with ten work-engaged nurses employed at the main hospital in one region in Norway. The interviews were interpreted using the Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis method (IPA). Results: The results indicate the importance of using the personal resources: authenticity and a sense of humour for staying healthy. The nurses’ authenticity, in the sense of having a strong sense of ownership towards their personal life experiences, and a sense of having a meaningful life in line with their own values and interests, was an important element when they considered their own health to be good in spite of repetitive strain injuries and perceived stress. These personal resources seem to be positively related to their well-being and work engagement, which serves as an argument for including them among other personal resources, often conceptualized in terms of Psychological Capital (PsyCap). The results also showed that the nurses worked actively and intentionally with conditions that could contribute to safeguarding their own health. Conclusion: The results indicated the importance of stimulating the nurses’ area of knowledge about caring for themselves in order to enable them to maintain good physical and mental health. A focus on self-care should be part of the agenda as early as during nursing education.

Critical Factors in Managing Relationally Demanding Jobs, in Care for Very Ill and/or Dying Patients: A Phenomenological Study among Public Hospital Nurses

Background: Workload, interpersonal relationships, professional conflict and the emotional cost of providing care are potential sources of stress and burnout among nurses. Based on experiences of hospital nurses, this paper aims to identify critical factors for nurses in managing relationally demanding situations in care for very ill and/or dying patients. Methods: In-depth interviews were carried out with six nurses, working in a medium-sized hospital in Norway. The interviews were analysed using an interpretative phenomenological analysis. Results: The lack of identification with the core aspect of the job, relational contact with patients and relatives, and external motivation were found as potential barriers for managing relationally demanding jobs. The results also indicate that the nurses’ experiences of symptoms of burnout can be a result of demands that exceeded the nurses’ resources. A match between personal capacity and demands, mutual support among colleagues and leadership support, and contextual factors are critical to prevent the negative process of burnout. Conclusion: The results underscore the importance of an early response to employees who are beginning to struggle at work and the relevance of a true match between personal capacity and job demands. Moreover support among colleagues and leadership seems critical to prevent a negative process of burnout and help to manage relationally demanding jobs.

Spectroscopic Phenomenological Estimation of the Functional State of the Human Organism in Rate and Pathology

Express-evaluation of functional state of organism is the urgent question in connection with extension of the number of facts, affecting people in conditions of environment. Considering the variety of different effects, preferences might be given to integral activities. To our opinion, that kind of evaluation may be given by the phenomenological absorption spectroscopy analysis of biological liquids, which regards blood and its components as one and indivisible light-absorbing system without separating into individual compounds. We determine blood and its components as a system of quasi-particles in excited state. This way, all of physicochemical properties of such kind of system are formed by its effective energy characteristics, connected with absorption spectrums in UV and VIS radiation [1].

Phenomenological models of diffusivities based on local composition

In phenomenological models,diffusivity is at least a function of composition and the diffusivities at infinite dilution.An additional parameter(?),which can be determined by diffusivity in midpoint,are specially brought forward as token of fractional friction related with the interactions of same molecules in this paper,to extrapolate a new correlative equation for the mutual Maxwell-Stefan diffusivities.Furthermore,the correlative equation can be extended to calculate diffusivities in multicomponent mixtures based on binary data alone.The theoretical calculations are evaluated with published experimental data.The M-S diffusivities in a three-component liquid system are regarded as binary coefficients,the predictive results also agree with the experimental data.Results indicate that the model with additional coefficients is superior to currently used Darken methods,especially for systems of polar organic-water and those containing associative component.

On Grillet's Short Story “The Secret Room”——in a Phenomenological Reading Approach

In this paper, the authortries to make a tentative analysis on the short story “The Secret Room” by Alain Robbe Grillet, a French novelist and a contemporary world famous experimentalist of “new novel” form, through reading in phenomenological approach so as to appreciate his novel style, realize the readers esthetic imagination, meanwhile, to deepen the understanding of the process of phenomenological reading.

Application of Linear Thermodynamics to the Atmospheric System.Part Ⅱ: Exemplification of Linear Phenomenological Relations in the Atmospheric System

The linear phenomenological relations in the atmospheric boundary layer are proved indirectly using observational facts to combine linear thermodynamic theory and similarity theory in the boundary layer. Furthermore, it is proved that Ihe turbulent transport coefficients are in proportion to Ihe corresponding linear phenomenological coefficients. But the experimental facts show that the linear phenomenological relations are not (tenable in the atmospheric mixing layer because the turbulenl transport process is an intense non-linear process in the mixing layer. Hence the convection boundary layer is a thermodynamic stale in a non-linear region far from the equilibrium state. The geostrophic wind is a special cross-coupling phenomenon between the dynamic process and the thermodynamic process in the atmospheric system. It is a practical exemplification of a cross-coupling phenomenon in the atmospheric system.

The XPK Package:A Comparison between the Extended Phenomenological Kinetic(XPK) Method and the Conventional Kinetic Monte Carlo(KMC) Method

Recently, we proposed the extended phenomenological kinetics (XPK) method, which overcomes the notorious timescale separation difficulty between fast diffusion and slow chemical reactions in conventional kinetic Monte Carlo (KMC) simulations. In the present work, we make a comprehensive comparison, based on the newly developed XPK package, between the XPK method and the conventional KMC method using a model hydrogenation reaction system. Two potential energy surfaces with different lateral interactions have been designed to illustrate the advantages of the XPK method in computational costs, parallel efficiency and the convergence behaviors to steady states. The XPK method is shown to be efficient and accurate, holding the great promise for theoretical modelling in heterogeneous catalysis, in particular, when the role of the lateral interactions among adsorbates is crucial.

Phenomenological Theory of Pyroelectricity

In pyroelectric materials there is a spontaneous dielectric polarization.When raising the temperature,then a voltage appears in the system.In the present manuscript a phenomenological theory of pyroelectricity is developed.

A Phenomenological Approach of a Special Artwork

Centered on describing,understanding,and interpreting conscious experiences lived by the subject open to objects of various kinds,in the endeavour to catch some of the meaning of life,finally,in particular contexts,phenomenology provides efficient opportunities for questioning and appropriating the meaning of musical works in their complexity,depth,and dynamics.Although music is considered to be the universal language to most people,this art form(of sounds organized in melody,harmony,rhythm,texture,“color”,temporality,etc.)raises serious difficulties when it is theoretically approached in view of a better knowledge and comprehension.A hermeneutic phenomenological analysis can lead us to deciphering much more as regards the“aesthetic object”,which herein is a musical composition signed by Rodion Shchedrin.The“object”of contemplation is“Balalaika”for violin solo pizzicato.It is an uncommon piece of contemporary music we will tackle by applying the phenomenological perspective belonging to Anna-Teresa Tymieniecka.In this essay,we try to emphasize part of the inspiring potential“phenomenology of the ontopoiesis of life”that shows for living and grasping the sense of a peculiar encounter;the perceiving subject does experience with an expression of the art that exactly took its name from the“Muses”.And it matters the more so as the aesthetic experience is articulating together with an ethical,very own human,one.

Phenomenological Models of the Global Demographic Dynamics and Their Usage for Forecasting in 21st Century

A great discovery made by H. von Foerster, P. M. Mora and L. W. Amiot was published in a 1960 issue of “Science”. The authors showed that existing data for calculating the Earth’s population in the new era (from 1 to 1958) could be described with incredibly high proximity by a hyperbolic function with the point of singularity on 13 November 2026. Thus, empirical regularity of the rise of the human population was established, which was marked by explosive demographic growth in the 20th century when during only one century it almost quadrupled: from 1.656 billion in 1900 to 6.144 billion in 2000. Nowadays, the world population has already overcome 7.8 billion people. Immediately after 1960, an active search for phenomenological models began to explain the mechanism of the hyperbolic population growth and the following demographic transition designed to stabilize its population. A significant role in explaining the mechanism of the hyperbolic growth of the world population was played by S. Kuznets (1960) and E. Boserup (1965), who found out that the rates of technological progress historically increased in proportion to the Earth’s population. It meant that the growth of the population led to raising the level of life-supporting technologies, and the latter in its turn enlarged the carrying capacity of the Earth, making it possible for the world population to expand. Proceeding from the information imperative, we have developed the model of the demographic dynamics for the 21st century for the first time. The model shows that with the development and spread of Intelligent Machines (IM), the number of the world population reaching a certain maximum will then irreversibly decline. Human depopulation will largely touch upon the most developed countries, where IM is used intensively nowadays. Until a certain moment in time, this depopulation in developed countries will be compensated by the explosive growth of the population in African countries located south of the Sahara. Calculations in our model reveal that the peak of the human population of 8.52 billion people will be reached in 2050, then it will irreversibly go down to 7.9 billion people by 2100, if developed countries do not take timely effective measures to overcome the process of information depopulation.

Chinese Overseas Students’Perceptions of the Effectiveness of Their Undergraduate Intercultural Education:A Phenomenological Study

Intercultural language education has attracted much attention in the field of foreign language teaching in China during the past decades,due to the increasing number of intercultural encounters across the world as a result of globalization.However,little is known about the effectiveness of intercultural education at Chinese universities.Adopting a phenomenological research design,this paper serves as a pilot study and sets out to explore the forms of intercultural education at universities and investigate the effectiveness of undergraduate intercultural education from the perspectives of 12 Chinese students.

Phenomenological Theory for Giant Magnetoresistance Oscillation in Magnetic Multiplayer

A phenomenological theoretical model for magnetic multilayer based on Boltzmann equation and Fuchs-Sondheimer theory is studied. An oscillatory transmission coefficient (Ts) is introduced into the boundary conditions to simulate the alternate ferromagnetic and anti-ferromagnetic coupling between the magnetic layers. The transmission coefficient has an oscillatory factor relating to the thickness of space layer. Other effects such as interface roughness on Ts are also taken into account. The numerical results for [Fe/Cr]n multilayer agree with the experimental data very well, both in the period and range of osciallation, which is leaded by the dependence of giant magnetoresistance(GMR) on layer thickness of space layer.

Operating room nurses’lived experiences of ethical codes:A phenomenological study in Iran

Objective:Operating room nurses,as essential members of health care teams,often face ethical challenges in the operating room.By using the ethical experiences of operating room nurses,a better understanding of ethics in the operating room can be achieved,which can lead to better nursing decisions in the face of these challenges.Therefore,this study was conducted to investigate operating room nurses’lived experiences of ethical codes.Methods:A hermeneutic phenomenological study was performed in Hamadan(Iran)from February 2019 to November 2020.Ten operating room nurses were selected as participants by purposive sampling.Data were collected through in-depth and semi-structured interviews.Data analysis was performed based on Van Manen methodology.Results:Data analysis revealed three main themes and 11 sub-themes representing the operating room nurses experience of the ethical code.The main themes were;adherence to professional commitments,preserving patient dignity,and respect to colleagues.Conclusion:The results underlined ethics and ethical values in the operating room.Due to the intense interactions between operating room nurses with the patient and surgical team,commitment to ethics by nurses can lead to improving quality of care and interactions among members of the surgical team.It is suggested that using these codes as a guideline and a framework could be developed to improve the ethical and professional performance of operating room nurses.